Ancient Egyptians were closer to Armenians than to Africans; a new genetics study reveals

A recent study sheds light on the age old question “who were the ancient Egyptians?”

A team of international scientists from the University of Tuebingen and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany analyzed the DNA of 93 Egyptian mummies dating from approximately 1400 BCE to 400 CE. The evidence from their study reveals a surprising close relation to ancient people of the Near East such as Armenians.

Our analyses reveal that ancient Egyptians shared more ancestry with Near Easterners than present-day Egyptians, who received additional sub-Saharan admixture in more recent times.

We find that ancient Egyptians are most closely related to Neolithic and Bronze Age samples in the Levant, as well as to Neolithic Anatolian and European populations.

Furthermore, the researchers found that over the 1,300-year period that the mummies represented, the population genetics of the ancient Egypt stayed surprising stable, despite foreign invasions.

The genetics of the Abusir el-Meleq community did not undergo any major shifts during the 1,300-year timespan we studied, suggesting that the population remained, genetically, relatively unaffected by foreign conquest and rule.

said Wolfgang Haak, from the Max Planck Institutes.

Map of Egypt depicting the location of the archaeological site Abusir-el Meleq (orange X) and the location of the modern Egyptian samples (orange circles)

The sub-Saharan African genetic influx seems to have only started after the Roman period, which coincides with the advent of monotheism in particularly Islam. Hence why modern Egyptians are more genetically shifted towards African people than the ancient Egyptians.

We found the ancient Egyptian samples falling distinct from modern Egyptians, and closer towards Near Eastern and European samples. In contrast, modern Egyptians are shifted towards sub-Saharan African populations.

So it turns out that modern Egyptians share more genetic ancestry with Sub-Saharan Africans than ancient Egyptians did, while the ancient Egyptians show a closer genetic affinity with ancient people from the Near East and the Levant like Armenians.

Egyptian mummy portraits, 1st c. B.C.E. – 1st c. C.E.

Tutankhamun’s paternal lineage

Something similar was revealed a few years ago when a controversy erupted surrounding Tutankhamun’s paternal lineage. Egyptian scholars have tested the autosomal and Y-DNA markers of three Pharaohs of the 18th dynasty : Amenhotep III, his son Akhenaten and grandson Tutankhamun. The aim was to determine the cause of death of Tutankhamun, who died at age 19. They however did not release the genetic data to the public themselves. The Discovery Chanel was making a documentary about this research and perhaps by mistake has recorded and aired some of the results from scientists computers.

Keen observers of the genetics company iGENEA quickly pointed out that the video from Discovery Channel shows the Y-STR results, which appear to be R1b. R1b and its variants is rare among modern Egyptians and the Middle East, it is however quite common in Europe and among the Armenians. This revelation however has not been taken seriously by academia, since the results were never officially published by Egyptian scholars.

Looking back however, with the recent study in mind, it is highly possible that the ancient Egyptian Pharaohs had European or Armenian ancestry.

Ancient Europeans and modern Armenians

The Armenian Highlands and Anatolia form a bridge connecting Europe, the Near East and the Caucasus. Anatolia’s location and history have placed it at the centre of several modern human expansions in Eurasia: it has been inhabited continuously since at least the early Upper Palaeolithic, and has the oldest known monumental complex built by huntergatherers in the 10th millennium BCE (Armenian Portasar commonly known as Göbekli Tepe). It is believed to have been the origin and/or route for migrating Near Eastern farmers towards Europe during the Neolithic, and has also played a major role in the dispersal of the Indo-European languages.

A genetics study by Haber et. al (2015) published not so long ago in the Nature’s European Journal of Human Genetics has demonstrated this connection.

We show that Armenians have higher genetic affinity to Neolithic Europeans than other present-day Near Easterners, and that 29% of the Armenian ancestry may originate from an ancestral population best represented by Neolithic Europeans.

The Hyksos

One explanation for the ancient Egyptian genetic affinity to Near East and Europe could be the Hyksos invasion. The Hyksos (Egyptian heqa khaseshet, meaning: “ruler(s) of the foreign countries”) were a people of unknown origin who settled in the eastern Nile Delta, some time before 1650 BC and ruled over Egypt well into the Hellenistic era. The Hyksos were often described as bowmen and cavalrymen wearing the cloaks of many colors. They were excellent archers and horse riders, who brought chariot warfare to Egypt.

Various theories have been postulated regarding their origin among them the theory of their Hurrian and Indo-European descent. Their way of life certainly resembles that of the Armeno-Aryan peoples of the time. The Hyksos for example practiced horse burials, and their chief deity was a storm God who later became associated with the Egyptian storm and desert god Set. Ancient Armenians worshiped the storm God Teshub/Teisheba. Teshub was later also identified with Aramazd and Hayk.

Furthermore, the Hyksos brought several technical innovations to Egypt, as well as cultural infusions such as new musical instruments and foreign loanwords. The changes introduced include new techniques of bronze working and pottery, new breeds of animals, and new crops. In warfare, they introduced the horse and chariot, the composite bow, improved battle axes, and advanced fortification techniques. All of this strongly suggests Indo-European origin. Robert Drews (1994) in this book “The Coming of the Greeks: Indo-European Conquests in the Aegean and the Near East” describes the Hyksos as follows:

“Where the hyksos chiefs who took over Egypt ca. 1650 B.C. may have gotten their chariots and charioteers is not known, but eastern Anatolia is not an unlikely source. The most direct evidence for the importance of Armenia in the development and manufacture of military chariots in the Late Bronze Age comes from Egyptian tombs. Since Egypt lacked the necessary woods, one assumes that the pharaohs regularly purchased from abroad either finished chariots or-after Egyptian woodworkers had perfected their skills-the requisite chariot wood. A tomb inscription from the reign of Amenhotep II declares that the wood for His Majesty’s chariot was brought from “the country of Naharin” (Mitanni). Since Mitanni itself was not wooded, we may suppose that the material come from the mountains to the north of Mitanni. In the case of the fifteenth century chariot now in Florance’s Museo Archeologico, studies of the wood done more than fifty years ago concluded that the chariot was made in Armenia, or quite precisely in the mountainous area bounded on the east by the Caspian, and on the south and west by a diagonal line extending from the southern shores of the Caspian to the Black Sea coast in the vicinity of Trebizond. If Egypt was to some extent dependent upon eastern Anatolia for its chariotry during the Eighteenth Dynasty, there are grounds for suspecting that when the chariot warfare first came to Egypt, it came from Armenia.”

That there was plenty of contact between ancient Egypt and ancient Armenia is apparent from Egyptian artifacts that were found in ancient Armenian burials. Whether the Hyksos explain the ancient Egyptian affinity to Armenians and other ancient people of Levant, Anatolia and Europe, or that perhaps this genetic influx extends to far older times remains a mystery. It is not unthinkable that the entire ancient Egyptian civilization radiated from the Armenian plateau after the invention and the spread of agriculture that occurred on the Armenian Highlands and its adjacent territories. The fact that within 1,300-year timespan that these DNA samples represent, there is great genetic continuity among the ancient Egyptians, suggests that it might extend to much older periods even predating the Hyksos invasion. Unless scholars find older Egyptian DNA to analyse and compare, this will remain a subject of discussion.

Another caution regarding the generalization of these findings should be considered. All of the 93 mummies that have been investigated were found in the same place at Abusir el-Meleq. It is possible that they represent only the upper class of ancient Egyptian life or a regional subgroup. However, because of the fairly large time period (1300 years) these mummies belonged to, it is also feasible to assume that they indeed represent a large portion of the genetics of ancient Egypt, with its roots possibly in Armenian Highlands.

This proves that the Armenians built the pyramids and not the Africans.

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1 year ago

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Anonymous

Huh, no. The pyramids are around a thousand years older than the mummies.

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1 year ago

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Anonymous

This is a joke right??? This site, the author and those responsible for this tongue-in-cheek “science” have been very selective in their choice of facts and photos. Anyone who has spent any time in Egypt, visiting tombs, viewing antiquities (as I have) can tell you that the older hieroglyphs are of darker people. The older the hieroglyphs, the darker the people portrayed in them. Why is it SOOOO hard for white people to accept that black people built the pyramids? The unshakable idea of white supremacy – that’s why. Armenians built the pyramids! HAHAHAHAHAHA. There’s nothing in the annals of… Read more »

Laugh all you want, but before you laugh further google Göbekli Tepe (or Portasar). A monument not even half excavated 7000 years older than the oldest pyramids. Trust me people on the Armenian Highlands didn’t wait for anyone to build such structures. Due to the Iron curtain during Soviet times and hostilities with Turkey that region had very little time to develop proper archaeology. But neolithic monuments are found there every time now. That region is very mountainous and prone to volcanic earthquakes. Not a lot of big structures survived unless they were buried like the megaliths of Göbekli Tepe.… Read more »

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1 year ago

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Anonymous

Nobody give a fuck about of how they looked like . But DNA analysis shows that subsaharan ‘Dna made up around 6 percent of ancient egyptians Dna. While it makes up around 15 today. Stop whining both of you. Black nubians where also a thing. Also you got malian and west saharan empires.

Skin tone =/= race. Do i become a different race when I produce more melanin in the summer time? White is just a catch all term for the various European ethnic groups, that doesn’t include other Caucasoid’s like north Africans, and west Asians (middle east). European’s and white Americans aren’t claiming to be decedent from ancient egyptians’s. were just letting you know that you aren’t either. On top of that I cant believe you expect us to just ignore factual forensic science and the fact Sub Saharan Africans (negroid) ethno states despite being rich with land and resources, cant even… Read more »

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1 year ago

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Ehab

So you are black correct

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9 days ago

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Anonymous

The egyptians where White while nubians where black. Some race mixing started to happen during the same time. But egyptians where 94 percent white arab and 6 percent Subsaharan during that time. There where some nubian dynasties but also greek and romans. So I would say the majority of ancient egyptians looked like arabs today. Not like Kalergi imagined them at least. Nubians where completly black thou and there where a great amount of africans civilizations in western Africa. Who gives a shit about the egyptians

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5 months ago

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Dog B. Hunter

I hope that ends the persistent argument from a few who falsely believe ancient egyptians were black. Just because Egypt was and is in North Africa does not mean they were genetically similar to sub-saharan people. This along with the scrutiny and testing of various mummies of Ramsese and Tut have proven that they were caucasian (WHITE), not black. Sorry for those who cling to the hope that black africans somehow were responsible for an advanced and dominant ancient civilization. The truth is, which is still obvious, ancient blacks most likely did not differ much from the primitive tribes still… Read more »

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1 year ago

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Fernanda

What a douche you are! Your comment is racist and therefore ignorant. I’m so grateful that those “primitive tribes scattered across the african continent” that you are so condescending to, have better things to do (like provide for their own survival, practice a mythology and create communities where there are no crimes) than to read your your stupid comment. Do you think that because you’re “cacausian (WHITE)” it means that somehow YOU contributed in any way to the development of civilization?! NO! You didn’t! And as a matter of fact you, in the present day, are doing quite the opposite… Read more »

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1 year ago

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Anonymous

Armenians are white so you are racists as hell

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11 months ago

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Anonymous

Facts are Facts, I am an R1b, and I will not have my ancestors or my people insulted, by your ignorant comments. My ancestors were ancient horse warriors and conquered and settled the middle east and Europe. Grow up and realise that Africans had no influence on R1b culture in the past. However, in modern times you now dominate the mind set of most modern Western Culture, so give yourself a pat on the back.

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3 months ago

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Fernanda

AND, by the way, this article doesn’t say that the Egyptians resembled your “caucasians (WHITE), it says they resembled the Armenians, who are not “caucasians (white)”. Armenians are Armenians!!! And among the Armenians is the person who invented the cement mixer, the person who invented the magnetic resonance machine, the ice cream waffle cones (thank you!), the ATM’s, the blow-dryer, and many more.

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1 year ago

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Rodrigo

Hey Fernanda, you dumb cunt. Yelling racist dont prove him wrong. Indeed showing a subsaarian people that developed a writing system by themselves would help a lot. Also, armenians ARE caucasoids. By the way your english is terrible.

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1 year ago

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Narek Zograbian

Armenians and Georgians are the literal definition of Caucasian…

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1 year ago

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Narekaci

Lmao, I didn’t know an ethnicity could settle 3000 years in the Caucasus and have predominant R1b haplogroup, and still not be Caucasian or White. Logical failure, haha.

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1 year ago

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Lydia

Armenians ARE Caucasians, in fact they’re THE caucasians, where the rest of Caucasians came from. Phenotypically, they tend to look closest to Southern Europeans. Italians, Spanish, Greeks etc.

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6 months ago

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Sphinx

Number one problem white supremacists face is “how can you claim to be superior when where, in ancient history, it burned brightest, where it burned whitest; northern Europe, the white man has nothing but caves to show for his superiority. Hitler appropriated Hindu warriors as Aryan ancestors of the modern German and now you are claiming brown/black skinned peoples of thousands of miles of land and seas away from the typical European. Name just one country more intertwined in the formation, the dna of Ancient Egypt than Nubia; modern day Sudan. Dreamer!! DNA is the game of numbers!!

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1 year ago

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Ehab

The point is you didn’t build old Egypt and black people were slaves in Egypt Sorry

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6 days ago

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Anonymous

The genetic markers indentifying Egyptian rulers with non-African people are understandable considering the numerous conquest of Egypt from Central Asia, such as the Hyksos, does not establish that
Egyptian civilization was actually
started by these people. Findings by
the British ethnic Kenyan, Dr. Sir Basil
Davidson, indicate the Egyptian civilization was started by people related to the Nubians. To support this in his series “Africa” on the Discovery Channel, he shows pre-Egyptian cave paintings, in Algeria,
of a very dark-skinned people dressed like the Egyptians and Nubian pyramids that were smaller but older than those, further north, in Egypt.

How did Nubians end up in Algeria? Nubians are associated with Sudan which is on the other side of Africa from Algeria. Also there are interesting facts about Nubian DNA, which holds a sizable European and Eurasian markers. According to Y-DNA analysis by Hassan et al. (2008), around 44% of Nubians in Sudan carry the haplogroup J. The remainder mainly belong to the E1b1b clade (23%). Both paternal lineages are also common among local Afroasiatic-speaking populations. The next most frequent haplogroups borne by Nubians are the Western European-linked R1b clade (10%) and the Eurasian lineage F (10%), followed by the… Read more »

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1 year ago

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Ehab

You really need to study what you are saying before you talk

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6 days ago

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Ehab

I didn’t put this comment here, I put it somewhere else

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4 days ago

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Keyser Soze

According to National Geographic Genographic Project tracing ancient human migrations, Armenians left their DNA markers 80,000 – 40,000 years ago in Portasar, or in gibberish, Gobekli Tepe. Moreover, according to the same DNA tests, I have a direct Y chromosome link to King Tut and thus his father Pharaoh Akhenaten the first monotheistic Pharaoh in Egyptian history who some now claim was actually Moses. And, I am Armenian but don’t hold myself out as an ancient alien hybrid like the popular cable show Ancient Aliens.

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10 months ago

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Jamieson

Sphinx is sick in the head and needs psychiatric help.

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7 months ago

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Haoxi

White people cannot stand being out in the sun more than 30 minutes without sunscreen and yet you are trying to tell me that Armenians, white people, were the people living in Egypt, Africa, thousands of years ago?…HAHA HAHAHA good try Funny tho, now that the truth cannot be hidden any longer some white folks have the courage to say “wooly hair and dark skin is not exclusive to black/African people” HAHAHA good try number 2. to the ignorants out there, Africa is a huge continent bigger than the US, china and almost the entire Europe combined (do some research)… Read more »

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6 months ago

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Lalole

White people cannot stand being out in the sun more than 30 minutes without sunscreen, and you’re trying to tell me is white people who created the pyramids..in Egypt white people…in Africa 12000 years ago…white the steong african sun…HAHAHA please

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6 months ago

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Anonymous

I browsed through this website and it is basically saying that the center of all good and beautiful is Armenia? Well okay doesnt bother me at all. But seriously, the history of Egypt doesnt start at 1400 BC. It is not unlikely that some ancient people from the Caucasus invaded Egypt but to say that they were base of the Egyptian population this time is a bold claim. Regarding culture, dressing, rituals, names etc the ACTUAL Egyptian culture hasnt very much to do with cultures from the Caucasus and the invaders were most likely just assimilated into ancient Egypt. Plus,… Read more »

Have you even read the article? lol None of your accusations are claimed in this article. No one says that all good and beautiful is from Armenia. This website is however about Armenia lol. Would you also complain the absence of Chinese in a book on Greek civilization? Who says anything about the base (whatever that may be) of the Egyptian population? What do you know of the Cultures from the Caucasus? Did you know that the ancient Greeks historians considered some tribes of the Caucasus to be related to Egyptians? Herodotus regarded the Colchians as an Ancient Egyptian race.… Read more »

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5 months ago

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Anonymous

Based on genetic studies , if accurate , a lot of the Egyptians were armenian , this was not by invasion or rape since they dont tend to be that way culturally or in war , it was assimilation and intermarriage. Second, Armenians are Caucasian , theyre practically the definition of the term , and they have r1b and other european genetics. Most things in the modern world that are beautiful and grand do come from armenians because they were the ancient innovators, Europeans based on historical, writtwn, architectural, linguistic, and artifact evidence are from Armenia , they even reference… Read more »

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